


Forgotten Secrets

by LadyMeg



Series: Forgotten Secrets Triology [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff, forgotten drunken phonecalls trope, hungover mulder, mocking scully, she isn't sympathetic, things you said prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 07:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9592319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMeg/pseuds/LadyMeg
Summary: For the 'things you said on the phone at 4am' prompt || “Can’t you turn the volume of your hair down or something? It’s way too bright”





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still trying to get a grip on this fic writing thing after having stopped for many years, so any thoughts or comments are so incredibly appreciated.  
> I can also be found at ladymegg.tumblr.com if you so wish.  
> Enjoy and thanks for reading!

 

 

Scully can’t say she was entirely surprised to see Mulder rather closely resembling hell as she walked into the basement on Tuesday morning and she certainly wasn’t offended at the groan he omitted at the sight of her. She’d been humming obtusely in a rather un-Scully-like manner and had placed the Starbucks cup down in front of him with more vigour than strictly required, earning her a scowl from her partner which did nothing but make her laugh brightly. She was pretty sure this is the opposite of his desired effect.

“Can’t you turn the volume of your hair down or something? It’s way too bright”

Stoically ignoring both his comment and the daggers being shot at her, Scully perched daintily on the side of Mulder’s desk and sipped from her own cup. She allowed the silence brought on by her coffee-drinking to fill the room for a second, enjoyed the moment of the day’s first taste of coffee and then took a deep breath.

“Morning, Sunshine!” The volume of her greeting elicited a yelp from Mulder, immediately followed by a groan as he slumped back against his chair, closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead.

“Scully. Do you have to be so loud?” he grumbled, reaching out blindly for the coffee cup. Scully laughed delightedly but took pity and nudged the cup to his outstretched fingers with the back of her hand. She thinks she saw an appreciative smile in response but can’t entirely be sure.

“Something bothering you, Mulder? Not feeling too perky this morning?” One eye peeked open and does its best to glare at her but isn’t quite successful.

“I don’t feel very well” he mumbled, bringing the cup to his lips. “I think I might be coming down with something.” Scully shook her head and rolled her eyes at the state of her partner.

“The last time I checked, Mulder - and I may be wrong about this because medical school was oh so long ago - too much tequila does not classify as ‘coming down with something’.” Frown lines momentarily appeared between his brows and he attempted to pull himself straighter in his chair.

“Tequila? No, Scully. This is serious. I’ve got flu or something. A 24-hour bug, at best. I’m not okay.” She looked him over. He was right, he didn’t look well; pale complexion, unfocused eyes and the wince of man with a headache powerful enough to render movement nigh on impossible. She wondered for a moment if she didn’t know better, would she buy this act? She highly doubted it, but she admired his balls for trying.

“So this wasn’t caused by you going out to celebrate Frohike’s birthday last night?” For the first time that morning, Mulder made eye contact.

“Birthday? No?” the innocence in his voice was commendable, she’d give him that.

“Nothing to do with the fact that you are ‘Mulder: Lord of All Drinking Games?” She did her best to keep the smile from the corner of her lips but she was pretty sure she was failing as the innocent look on Mulder’s face began to slip and was replaced by one of cold horror.

“No?”

“And nothing to do with the fact you were poured into a taxi last night, and decided to continue the party on your own with the bottle of red wine my mother gave you for christmas?” Scully openly grinned at the absolute mortification written across Mulder’s face.

“Exactly how do you know about that, Scully?” he deadpanned, thoughts running through his head a mile a minute, each more embarrassing than the last.

“You don’t remember calling me last night?” To be fair, she had been fairly sure he would at least remember some of their conversation. It had gone on for quite some time.

“Called you?” the confusion of his face clearly stated that no, he didn’t quite remember that part of the evening, thank you very much. But a sudden flash of memory caused him to groan once more. He remembered sitting on the floor of his apartment, phone pressed to his ear with one shoulder as he traced the path of his fish against the glass with one finger. The feeling of sheer fascination had overwhelmed him and he wasn’t entirely sure if that was fascination at the movements of the brightly coloured creatures his eyes were following or at the voice of his partner down the line. Come to think of it, he may have asked her for clarification on that point. Oh, god.

“Mmm. Called me.” Scully nodded. “Apparently you find it a lot easier to sleep when I’m talking to you. Not too sure if I shouldn’t be offended at that, to be honest” she frowned, taking a contemplative sip of her coffee. Dropping his head into his hands in front of him, he wished Drunk Mulder had had more flamin’ sense than to call his partner and spout who-knows-what to her. The idiot.

“I’m sure I meant it in a nice way, Scully” he told her, hoping that was the end of his drunken ponderings but somehow knowing that it wasn’t quite.

“Mmm,” she agreed, “I’m sure you’re right…considering the rest of the conversation”. Mulder peered up at her, his head still propped up by his hands. For god’s sake. Of all the people to have phoned in the middle of the night, drunker than he recalls being for a long time, it had to be Scully.

But then again, of course. It always had to be Scully.

“Do I want to know? Is this conversation going to ensure I am mortified for the rest of my life or do I need to just ask you to kindly keep the entire thing to yourself and save me the sheer horror of remembering what I said to you in the middle of the night?” Scully laughed far too cheerfully for his liking. The fresh-faced woman was enjoying this way too much, perched on the edge of his desk in her freshly pressed clothes, makeup nicely applied and hair styled. Very put-together. Very proper. Very… So very _Scully_. How does she always do that?

Finally, she seemed to take a little pity on the man, and her laughter died away.

“Oh, Mulder. It wasn’t that bad. You just had a lot of drunken thoughts you wanted to share with somebody, that’s all. Nothing too outrageous.” She shrugged and Mulder felt a sigh of relief escape him. Right. Nothing too crazy. No cringe-inducing statements which would need explaining or worse, anything insulting which would require an apology. Nodding, he pulled himself back up into his chair and tried to straighten his jacket slightly. That was the last time he was drinking that much. He knew he said that the last time, but really, he was getting too old for this. And the hangover’s were definitely less forgiving than they had been a couple of years ago.

“Right,” he clear his throat, “okay. Well, I’m sorry for calling you so late, Scully. It won’t happen again.” He tried to bring a close to the conversation and get on with the report in front of him. To be honest, he was hoping he’d be able to get away with doodling on a piece of paper for the majority of the day without her either noticing or, if she did, he was banking on her being kind and letting it slide. Just this once, of course.

“That’s alright, Mulder,” the grin she was giving him suddenly sent warning bells firing through his brain. “And hey, anytime you want to share some more secrets, let me know. I haven’t had such a laugh for a long time.” To anyone else, the look on her face might have read as perfectly pleasant, but Mulder knew that look. It was the one which occasionally graced her features as she was feeling particularly mischievous and about to make him squirm. She usually reserved it for putting him in awkward situations on out-of-town cases when he was being overly flirtatious and she wanted to remind him who exactly was boss in their partnership, but this time it was reserved solely for her own amusement.

“Secrets?” he barely dared to ask.

“Oh yeah, don’t you remember?” she asked innocently, sliding off his desk and standing, one hand perched on her hip and the other holding the coffee cup casually. “You spent an awful lot of time trying to coax secrets out of me and in the end, we agreed that any secrets you wanted, we’d trade one-for-one”. Oh, oh god. He _did_ recall feeling particularly pleased that he seemed to have conned Scully into telling him more about the mystery that was her. He seemed to think he had pulled off a master plan, blinded her with his brilliance, and he was now going to learn her most intimate secrets. In the cold light of day, and with Scully’s soft chuckling washing over him, he was pretty sure his master plan wasn’t so masterful after all.

“Just tell me, Scully” he grumbled. “Put me out of my misery.”

“Oh, no, Mulder. You’ve nothing to worry about. I really found it rather flattering that you - how did you put it? - “ _at first thought I was the most irritating little vole you had ever met but now find me rather enchanting_ ””. She laughed loudly and he felt his face flush. Jesus Christ. He had not said that?! Although… he had found her irritating at first - at the _very beginning_. But that was simply because he had been used to working alone. He hadn’t needed a partner, especially one he had suspected was only there to entrap him. God, he hoped she knew he had very quickly changed his mind. Oh, Jesus, Mulder. What had he done?

“I mean,” she continued, one finger at her chin in faux-thought, “that I understand. But I do wonder if you were exaggerating when you said how much time you waste watching me from across the room.” Fuck. “You made it sound like a lot.” Fuck. “And I have to admit, I have noticed a couple of times, but by the sounds of it, you can barely keep your eyes off of my ass.” Oh fuck fuck _fuck_. “I can’t say I’m not flattered though, Mulder. And I’ll try and wear skirts more often, as requested.”

He could feel his face burning a vicious red and his heart was pounding against his chest. In a way, he was glad he hadn’t remembered this conversation beforehand. He would have had to resign and he was pretty fond of the X Files, but choosing between his work and this mortification that he was facing right now…well, he could hunt aliens freelance.

It took him a while to notice Scully’s laughter was filling the room and she had her head thrown back, shoulders shaking. In fact, as she tipped her head forward again and shook her hair straight, he was pretty sure he saw her wiping a stray tear away from her eye. Stepping forward and sitting on his desk again, she reached a hand over and placed it on his shoulder reassuringly.

“Oh, Mulder. You’re _face_. Oh, honestly,” she paused briefly to giggle again, “it’s an absolute picture. It’s okay. Don’t worry. I’m not insulted. Do you remember any of the secrets I shared with you?” she seemed almost hesitant, as if she had the sudden horrific thought that she had miscalculated and he would remember whatever it was she had told him. But unfortunately enough for him, her words hadn’t come back to him and his mind remained frustratingly blank of Scully secrets.

“No” he mumbled and he was aware he sounded like a particularly petulant child but couldn’t find the energy to care. She laughed quietly and brought her hand to his cheek momentarily.

“Well, no matter. I’m sure they’ll come back to you at some point, no doubt. These things have a tendency to resurface. But for now, I’ve gotta go. I’m wanted for an autopsy at 9.” She slid of the desk, took one more drink from her coffee and then dropped the cup into his bin. As she did so, he ran his eyes over her and, as he noticed the skirt that she was wearing, his heart jumped slightly. Had she… had she worn that for him off the back of last night’s conversation?

As she gathers up a couple of files and flicks through them to ensure she has everything she requires, Mulder clears his throat and braces himself.

“Was… that was it, right, Scully? I didn’t share any more ‘secrets’ or anything?” Scully giggled and looked at him for a moment with another of her mischievous smiles.

“Oh, a couple things. But nothing of huge importance. You really can’t remember any of the things I said to you?” she cocked her head to one side, seemingly deciding if he was telling the truth or not.

“Believe me, Scully. I would much rather remember than keep having mortifying information sprung upon me” he groaned. She smiled softly at him and nodded once, then paused. She stood for a moment, the fingers of one hand plucking lightly at the edge of one of the manilla folders in her hand before she hummed lightly.

“Well, there’s always next time, Mulder. But I’ll tell you what. Out of pity, I’ll let you in on one of my secrets.” Immediately, Mulder felt himself perk up and his spine straightened a little. He probably looked like a little boy about to be rewarded for good homework, but at this point, he was beyond caring.

“It’s not one I told you last night though. This is a brand new one.” He nodded enthusiastically. Leaning forward so her lips were close to his ear, she dropped her voice and quietly whispered;

“I kind of like your drunken 4am phone thoughts.” Mulder felt himself flush but this time he was pretty sure it wasn’t from embarrassment. She makes her way to the door of the basement, a smug smile playing on her lips, but pauses as she reaches the door and turns to face him momentarily.

“Oh, and Mulder? If, for whatever reason, you _don’t_ begin to remember what was said last night, you’re going to need to ask me on a date again some time.” she spins on her heels and walks out of the room, throwing over her shoulder “I don’t want my response to remain a secret forever.” 

_fin._

 


End file.
